North Adams Man Pleads Guilty to Child Assault

03:32PM / Friday, June 06, 2025Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On Thursday, June 5, Jesriel Morales, 37 of North Adams, pleaded guilty to five charges in Berkshire Superior Court.

The charges are:

3 counts of Aggravated Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon on a Child
2 counts of Assault and Battery

The incident occurred in 2022. The Defendant assaulted a six-year-old child: slamming the child into a window and wall, hitting them with a belt, slapping them; and then forcing them to kneel on dried rice.

The Commonwealth requested a state prison sentence of 3 to 5 years. The defense sought probation or a suspended sentence. Judge Hodge sentenced the Defendant to 2 ½ years in the Berkshire House of Corrections for the two counts of Aggravated Assault and Battery with a Deadly Weapon on a Child and two years of probation on and after for the two counts of Assault and Battery. The Judge also placed conditions on Morales including no contact with the victim and an order to participate in the Fatherhood program.

"I am pleased with the guilty plea," District Attorney Shugrue said. "Jesriel Morales preyed on the most innocent member of society. Today my thoughts are with the very young victim. I hope this conclusion provides them (singular) some peace and feeling of safety and security.""

Chief of the Child Abuse Unit, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Giarolo represented the Commonwealth. Kristen Rapkowicz served as the Victim Witness Advocate on behalf of the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office. North Adams Police served as the lead law enforcement agency.

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Dalton Considers Updating its Municipal Code

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
01:21PM / Thursday, August 27, 2026

DALTON, Mass. — The town is considering updating its original 18-year municipal code to 2026 standards.

During a recent Select Board meeting, General Code New England account manager Zach Dumont outlined the 18- to-24 month process.

General Code New England is a division of the International Code Council, which writes all the statewide building codes across the United States. For the last 18 years, the organization has been the codifier for municipalities.

"We work with communities to build, maintain, and update your local municipal code. That is your collection of bylaws, ordinances, regulations, and any other legislation you've ever adopted," Dumont said.

Once the project is complete, the town would have a fully updated set of books and an improved eCode360 site, he said.

"The way the process would work is we would put together a scope of work, a timeline, a price point, and everything that we would want to touch or do as a part of the code project," Dumont said.

When a municipal code is built, it has a general lifespan of about 15 to 20 years, and although that is a long time, it goes by very quickly, he said.

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